scholarly journals Unsaid Thoughts: Thinking in the absence of (some) verbal logical connectives

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lobina ◽  
Josep Demestre ◽  
José E. García-Albea ◽  
Marc Guasch Moix
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
Formal Logic ◽  
Available P ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Conceptual Representations ◽  
Logical Connectives ◽  
Thinking Processes

Combining two thoughts into a compound mental representation is a central feature of our verbal and non-verbal logical abilities. We here approach this issue by focusing on the contingency that while natural languages typically verbalise only two of the sixteen connectives from formal logic to express compound thoughts —"and" and "or"— the remainder appear to be entertainable as non-verbal, conceptual representations and this suggests a way to probe how linguistic and non-linguistic thinking processes relate. In a visual world experiment aimed at tracking both comprehension-related and reasoning-related aspects of the capacity to represent compound thoughts, we found that participants are capable of learning and interpreting a made-up word for logic’s NAND operator, indicating that unlexicalised logical connectives are nonetheless conceptually available.

more explicit and systematic than the intuitive reconstructions supplied by un-sophisticated speakers, the analyses of implicature which have been proposed by pragmatists have shared with these intuitive reconstructions the defect of being almost entirely ex post facto. Given that an utterance in context was found to carry particular implicatures, what both the hearer and the pragmatic theorist can do, the latter in a slightly more sophisticated way, is to show how in very intuitive terms there was an argu-ment based on the context, the utterance and general expectations about the behaviour of speakers, that would justify the particular interpretation chosen. What they fail to show is that on the same basis, an equally convincing justification could not have been given for some other interpretation that was not in fact chosen. There may be a whole variety of interpretations that would meet whatever standards of truthfulness, informativeness, relevance and clarity have been proposed or envis-aged so far. The theory needs improving at a fundamental level before it can be fruitfully applied to particular cases. In his William James Lectures, Grice put forward an idea of fundamental import-ance: that the very act of communicating creates expectations which it then exploits. Grice himself first applied this idea and its elaboration in terms of the maxims to a rather limited problem of linguistic philosophy: do logical connectives (‘and’, ‘or’, ‘if . . . then’) have the same meaning in natural languages as they do in logic? He argued that the richer meaning these connectives seem to have in natural languages can be explained in terms not of word meaning but of implicature. He then suggested that this approach could have wider applications: that the task of linguistic semantics could be considerably simplified by treating a large array of problems in terms of implicatures. And indeed, the study of implicature along Gricean lines has become a major concern of pragmatics. We believe that the basic idea of Grice’s William James Lectures has even wider implications: it offers a way of developing the analysis of inferential communication, suggested by Grice him-self in ‘Meaning’ (1957), into an explanatory model. To achieve this, however, we must leave aside the various elaborations of Grice’s original hunches and the sophisticated, though empirically rather empty debates they have given rise to. What is needed is an attempt to rethink, in psychologically realistic terms, such basic questions as: What form of shared information is available to humans? How is shared information exploited in communication? What is relevance and how is it achieved? What role does the search for relevance play in communication? It is to these questions that we now turn.

2005 ◽  
pp. 145-145
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Explanatory Model ◽  
Large Array ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Ex Post Facto ◽  
Shared Information ◽  
Logical Connectives ◽  
Linguistic Philosophy

Scope

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Richard
Keyword(s):  
Formal Logic ◽  
The Other ◽  
Universal Quantifier ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Other Hand

Scope is a notion used by logicians and linguists in describing artificial and natural languages. It is best introduced in terms of the languages of formal logic. Consider a particular occurrence of an operator in a sentence – say, that of ‘→’ in (1) below, or that of the universal quantifier ‘∀’ in (2) below. - (1) A → (B & C) - (2) ∀x(Bxy →∃ yAxy) Speaking intuitively, the scope of the operator is that part of the sentence which it governs. The scope of ‘→’ in (1) is the whole sentence; this renders the whole sentence a conditional. The scope of ‘&’, on the other hand, is just ‘(B & C)’. In (2), the scope of the quantifier ‘∀’ is the whole sentence, which allows it to bind every occurrence of x. The scope of ‘∃’ is only ‘∃yAxy’. Since ‘Bxy’ is outside its scope, the ‘y’ in ‘Bxy’ is left unbound.

CWW, LANGUAGE, AND THINKING

2013 ◽  
Vol 09 (02) ◽  
pp. 183-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. I. PERLOVSKY ◽  
R. ILIN
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Computational Complexity ◽  
Dynamic Logic ◽  
Computing With Words ◽  
Neural Structure ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Language Functioning ◽  
Cultural Effects ◽  
Thinking Processes ◽  
Psychological Knowledge

Computing with words, CWW, is considered in the context of natural language functioning, unifying language with thinking. Previous attempts at modeling natural languages as well as thinking processes in artificial intelligence have met with computational complexity. To overcome computational complexity we use dynamic logic (DL), an extension of fuzzy logic describing fuzzy to crisp transitions. We suggest a possible architecture motivated by mathematical and neural considerations. We discuss the reasons why CWW has to be modeled jointly with thinking and propose an architecture consistent with brain neural structure and with a wealth of psychological knowledge. The proposed architecture implies the existence of relationships between languages and cultures. We discuss these implications for further evolution of English and Chinese cultures, and for cultural effects of interactions between natural languages and CWW.

scholarly journals Computer code comprehension shares neural resources with formal logical inference in the fronto-parietal network

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun-Fei Liu ◽  
Judy Kim ◽  
Colin Wilson ◽  
Marina Bedny
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Computer Code ◽  
Formal Logic ◽  
Executive Processes ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Symbol Systems ◽  
Cultural Symbol ◽  
Memory Control

Despite the importance of programming to modern society, the cognitive and neural bases of code comprehension are largely unknown. Programming languages might ‘recycle’ neurocognitive mechanisms originally developed for natural languages. Alternatively, comprehension of code could depend on fronto-parietal networks shared with other culturally-invented symbol systems, such as formal logic and symbolic math such as algebra. Expert programmers (average 11 years of programming experience) performed code comprehension and memory control tasks while undergoing fMRI. The same participants also performed formal logic, symbolic math, executive control, and language localizer tasks. A left-lateralized fronto-parietal network was recruited for code comprehension. Patterns of activity within this network distinguish between ‘for’ loops and ‘if’ conditional code functions. In terms of the underlying neural basis, code comprehension overlapped extensively with formal logic and to a lesser degree math. Overlap with executive processes and language was low, but laterality of language and code covaried across individuals. Cultural symbol systems, including code, depend on a distinctive fronto-parietal cortical network.

Mental Representation of Logical Connectives

2004 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 636-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir M. Sloutsky ◽  
Yevgeniya Goldvarg
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
Logical Connectives

scholarly journals No title, no theme: The joined neural space between speakers and listeners during production and comprehension of multi-sentence discourse

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Heidlmayr ◽  
Kirsten Weber ◽  
Atsuko Takashima ◽  
Peter Hagoort
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Situation Model ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Model Representation ◽  
Spatiotemporal Pattern ◽  
Conceptual Representations ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Time Courses

AbstractSpeakers and listeners usually interact in larger discourses than single words or even single sentences. The goal of the present study was to identify the neural bases reflecting how the mental representation of the situation denoted in a multi-sentence discourse (situation model) is constructed and shared between speakers and listeners. An fMRI study using a variant of the ambiguous text paradigm was designed. Speakers produced ambiguous texts in the scanner and listeners subsequently listened to these texts in different states of ambiguity: preceded by a highly informative, intermediately informative or no title at all. Conventional BOLD activation analyses in listeners, as well as inter-subject correlation analyses between the speakers’ and the listeners’ hemodynamic time courses were performed. Critically, only the processing of disambiguated, coherent discourse with an intelligible situation model representation involved (shared) activation in bilateral lateral parietal and medial prefrontal regions. This shared spatiotemporal pattern of brain activation between the speaker and the listener suggests that the process of memory retrieval in medial prefrontal regions and the binding of retrieved information in the lateral parietal cortex constitutes a core mechanism underlying the communication of complex conceptual representations.

scholarly journals Linguistic Relativity and Flexibility of Mental Representations: Color Terms in a Frame Based Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-141
Author(s):  
Leda Berio
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Linguistic Relativity ◽  
Perceptual Information ◽  
Linguistic Information ◽  
Color Terms ◽  
Conceptual Representations ◽  
Fundamental Assumption ◽  
Variable Influence

AbstractThis paper connects the issue of the influence of language on conceptual representations, known as Linguistic Relativity, with some issues pertaining to concepts’ structure and retrieval. In what follows, I present a model of the relation between linguistic information and perceptual information in concepts using frames as a format of mental representation, and argue that this model not only accommodates the empirical evidence presented by the linguistic relativity debate, but also sheds some light on unanswered questions regarding conceptual representations’ structure. A fundamental assumption is that mental representations can be conceptualised as complex functional structures whose components can be dynamically and flexibly recruited depending on the tasks at hand; the components include linguistic and non-linguistic elements. This kind of model allows for the representation of the interaction between linguistic and perceptual information and accounts for the variable influence that color labels have on non-linguistic tasks. The paper provides some example of strategy shifting and flexible recruitment of linguistic information available in the literature and explains them using frames.

Thesaurus for Natural-Language-Based Conceptual Design

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eiko Yamamoto ◽  
Toshiharu Taura ◽  
Shota Ohashi ◽  
Masaki Yamamoto
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Hierarchical Structures ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Mathematical Equations ◽  
Thinking Processes ◽  
Physical Phenomena

Conceptual design is a process wherein new functions are created through engineering design. In conceptual design, we use natural language since it plays an important role in the expression and operation of a function. Moreover, natural language is used in our day-to-day thinking processes and is expected to keep a fine interface with the designer. However, it is at a disadvantage with regard to the expression of a function, since physical phenomena, which are the essence of a function, are better expressed in the form of mathematical equations than natural languages. In this study, we attempt to develop a method for using natural language for operating a function by harnessing its advantages and overcoming its disadvantage. We focus on the vital process in conceptual design, that is, the function dividing process wherein the required function is decomposed into sub functions that satisfy the required function. We construct a thesaurus by semiautomatic extraction of the hierarchical structures of words from a document by using natural language processing. We show that the constructed thesaurus can be useful in supporting the function dividing process.

A MEASURE OF AVERAGE SENSITIVITY FOR FUZZY LOGICS

1994 ◽  
Vol 02 (04) ◽  
pp. 361-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
HUNG T. NGUYEN ◽  
VLADIK KREINOVICH ◽  
DANA TOLBERT
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Control Systems ◽  
Intelligent Control ◽  
Membership Functions ◽  
Fuzzy Logics ◽  
Average Sensitivity ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Intelligent Control Systems ◽  
Good Accordance ◽  
Logical Connectives

Experts usually express their uncertainty by words of natural languages (like "perhaps", "for sure", etc). In the majority of expert systems and intelligent control systems, uncertainty of experts' statements is represented by a number from the interval [0, 1]. There are many different procedures that translate the words that experts use into numbers from [0, 1]. For one and the same word, different procedures can lead to different numbers. Some &– and ∨–operations are very sensitive to this difference in the sense that small changes in t(A) and t(B) can lead to absolutely different estimates for t(A&B) and t(A ∨ B). In view of that, it is reasonable to restrict ourselves to the operations that are the least sensitive to such changes. In this paper, we prove that ab and a + b − ab are "in the average" the least sensitive &– and ∨–operations. This result is in good accordance with the experimental data according to which in. many cases, these operations provide the best description of how experts actually think. We also show how this idea can be applied to other logical connectives (e.g., "not"), and to the choice of membership functions.

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